It's been 15 years since I was lucky enough to go to Florida, but Epcot is definately one of the places I remember most fondly (along with Busch). It was certainly my favourite Disney park, each 'country' had great theming and felt completely different to the last and I will never forget sitting on the edge of the lake watching the awesome fireworks display.

Of course, a lot of attractions have been added to all the parks since then, and a completely new park in IOA, but when I return sometime (hopefully) in the near future I will certainly put aside a day for Epcot.

Epcot is by far my favourite Disney park, I always go in October, for the food festival they have on, where extra stalls are added for more countries and each country sells a small taster of food for between $2-$8, usually 2-3 items and an alcoholic drink from the country, I think its a fantastic touch! (although eating your way round 20 countries can be difficult!)

The portrayal of all the countries as well (if not slightly stereotypical) is something I enjoy every time I visit.

The rides are very innovative and different to any other park around, and the Innovations section always used to be my favourite when I was young!

I like Epcot, though it doesn't have many rides the ones it does have are great. I think Epcot was one of my favourite parks when I went to Florida (after Universal Studios). The countries are very nice, I love the detail that disney has done to them. I really would love to go back...just for that shop in Japan, I could have spent the whole day in there I think haha.

Zs_chris:Yeah the countries are abit stereotypical, I was going to go on this program they had and if I remember correctly you had to represent your country this way and that it was weird haha. I didn't bother to apply because I didn't agree with the appearance rules (well the hair rule to be exact).

Yay for Figment, so glad they brought him back, when I went in 2000 he wasn't there....the ride was pretty dull without him I must say.

It's a bit of a shame, Maelstrom was one of those fun little Disney rides where the fact it was a bit tacky just added to its charm. Plus it's a ride that's relatively hidden and a nice unexpected surprise.

Permits have been filed for what's rumoured to be the Ratatouille trackless dark ride from Disneyland Paris to come to the French pavilion in EPCOT!

Credit to WDW News Today.

This is rumoured to be included with what is rumoured to be the big announcement for the theme parks at D23. Previously it has been Pandora and Star Wars, however this time it's rumoured to be the announcement of a 5 year redevelopment plan for EPCOT. This may include...

New/Updated Areas

- New entrance plaza to bring it into the 21st century

- Innovations plaza overhaul

- Spain with a Gigantic tie in

- Puerto Rico (not so likely)

- A Guardians of the Galaxy themed land including various attractions to replace Universe of Energy and the Wonders of Life pavilion (TRON is expected for the Magic Kingdom in Tomorrowland)

Attraction Overhauls

- Spaceship Earth overhaul

- Mission: SPACE overhaul possibly including a new film and story

- Upgrades for Living With The Land

- A new film for Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable

- The Seas with Nemo and Friends being updated to the Marine Life Institute from Finding Dory

New Rides and Attractions

- Inside Out to replace Journey Into Imagination with Figment. It is anticipated this would include a new story including both Figment and Rileys Emotions

- CoCo replacing The Grand Fiesta Tour in Mexico

- A Mulan overhaul for Cickevision 360 where Mushu the dragon will narrate the history of China

- Mary Poppins for the United Kingdom

- Tangled for Germany

- Big Hero 6 for Japan

- Ratatouille for France

- A new nighttime spectacular to replace IllumiNations

The majority of the above is rumour and I wouldn't anticipate it all to come true, however it's very exciting to think that it might!

Wow, that's certainly some interesting rumours. Even if only some of them come to fruition then it will give Epcot the much needed update it has required for a while now.

Ratatouille is an amazing ride in DLP so I think it will do very well in Epcot. I will admit when I read about Journey into the imagination being replaced I was set to get very annoyed at the loss of Figment as he is one of my earliest Disney memories and I'd be so upset if he were to go, so I'm pleased that they still plan to incorporate him in the new ride in some form.

One thing that does strike me with these rumours is that it appears that Disney are looking to attach a film to each country in the World Showcase. We already have Frozen in Norway, and it looks like the majority of the other featured countries will all eventually have a Disney film included in some form. It's certainly going to be interesting to see how this develops.

LAwesome news! I can tell right now that Ratatouille will do exceptionally well in EPCOT! Bringing more characters to EPCOT is key in securing the future of the park. I know many might disagree with that, but I think that it will help younger guests relate to the different themes of EPCOT, especially in World Showcase. Also, I would love to see the Mary Poppins rumour come to light as a dark ride attraction! I've always thought the United Kingdom pavilion need a star attraction to draw in more crowds.

Exciting stuff for Epcot, already my favorite Disney park and getting some more rides is always good. Seems like a massive amount of work to focus on one park mind, 3 new rides, and half a dozen or so complete rethemes (some of which sound like they could get reworks on the level of Frozen) for a park that already gets a steady stream of new rides.

Hope if they do Ratatouille that they fix the two big issues I had with the ride in DLP; short ride length and the illusion of running around and flying through the air being spoilt by the floor always being in view stopped it being one of the great theme park rides for me.

It's been confirmed that Guardians of the Galaxy will take up residence in Epcot's Future World, replacing The Universe of Energy which will close this August and in World Showcase, Ratatouille has been officially confirmed for the France pavilion and if the concept art is anything to go by, it is going to be beautiful and seems like quite a large expansion right around the existing pavilion area! And was well as these new additions, Mission: Space will recieve an upgrade making it Green Mission at Mission: SpaceAs well as the above, there will be a new restaurant near Mission: Space and the China pavilion will be getting a new film!

The Disney Skyliner is a brand-new way to get to and from parks and resorts at Walt Disney World. This cable car system will take guests to and from Disney’s Art of Animation, Pop Century and Caribbean Beach resorts and other locations with Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the International Gateway at Epcot. All the gondolas will feature fan favourite Disney characters!

Disney Rivera Hotel

As well as the Disney Skyliner, a new EPCOT hotel has been announced. The Disney Rivera Hotel will be connected to the Disney Skyliner transport system. This property is a Disney Vacation Club hotel and features a rooftop garden to watch the world go by and for fantastic views of both EPCOT and Hollywood Studio’s night-time spectaculars! The hotel will open in Autumn 2019.

Mission: SPACE

There's an all new green mission within Mission: SPACE as well as a refurbishment of the overall ride, reopening in just over 10 days!

New Restaurant

More excitingly a brand-new restaurant opposite Mission: SPACE is set to have you dine high above earth… in space! This brand-new experience will use screen technology to simulate that you are high in space without needing to be an astronaut. “The new space restaurant will be operated by the Patina Restaurant Group. Patina Restaurant Group operates several other restaurants at Walt Disney World including Tutto Italia and Via Napoli at Epcot and Morimoto Asia at Disney Springs.” Whilst no official date has been given for this experience, we will hopefully see construction soon!

Ratatouille & French Pavilion Expansion

Ratatouille will be in a new expanded area of the France pavilion 'right past the Effie Tower' and will be similar to Disneyland Resort Paris’ Ratatouille: The Adventure. In this 4D attraction you will shrink down to the size of a rat as you scramble through various recognisable locations from the Disney Pixar film. Whilst the current opening year is unknown, it is hoped that the attraction will be open by 2021. I must say the attraction show building is certainly quite stunning!

Guardians of the Galaxy Attraction

This attraction will use the existing Universe of Energy building and be an entirely new adventure to California's Mission: BREAKOUT. There are no further details as of yet, however it is promised to offer the excitement found in space travel and action packed scenes with the guardians! Universe of Energy is expected to close on August 13th.

Hope they can fix the length and immersion issues from the DLP ride, won't take much to turn it from a good ride to a great ride.

Strange there's no info on the Guardians ride. Lots of places saying that the existing building is going to mostly be the queue and pre-show with an extension added. If they need such a big building I wonder if that points to a high speed ride. Can't see them using any of the tech from Test Track, Ratatouille or Soarin in it and if it used a brand new tech they would have probably said. Rollercoaster? Update of Indiana Jones/Dinosaur tech?

Sadly, they're moving even further away from the old concept. Innoventions is going, the post ride spaceship earth is going, the dancing fountains are being relocated to the lagoon and they're planting lots of trees instead (guessing the new pathways are designed to spread people around the park a bit more rather than the instinctive clockwise trip around the park). A shame, I've lots of fond memories of all the hands on exhibits that used to be at Epcot.

My big worry with this is that they're removing a whole bunch of ways of escaping the crowds. Maybe they're hoping that filling out the World Showcase with more rides and more restaurants will help keep the sheer number of people on the footpaths down.

If I'm honest, it's about time for change at Epcot. In my eyes, Epcot is supposed to change and evolve. Unfortunately, due to the severe lack of investment there has been little, which I guess makes all these announcements of changes sound drastic. But change is good, change is needed!

Some more new info on the Mission: Space Green Mission debuting on August 13.

Green Mission – a new mission that takes you on an exciting orbit around Earth. On this amazing new adventure, you’ll take in sites like the Hawaiian Islands, Italy’s “boot” and the Northern Lights—as seen from space, of course—before finally landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. No matter which mission you choose, it’ll be a journey that’s totally out of this world

As well as a small update to the Orange Mission.

Orange Mission for a truly intense experience that lets you feel the force of an actual space launch en route to Mars. On this mission, you’ll dodge meteoroids, slingshot around the moon and attempt a precision landing on the Red Planet’s alien surface. This “mission” has been enhanced with new, HD video to make it even clearer – I can’t imagine!

Disney Parks chairman Bob Chapek confirmed today that EPCOT's replacement for the Universe of Energy pavilion will be not only Guardians of the Galaxy themed, but will also be a roller coaster, making EPCOT, the last Disney park without one, finally join the others in the line ups.

The roller coaster will reportedly feature a 'launch into a 10 storey show building' (100ft), and a 'first of its kind' ride system, but no further information has been given on that.